Electrostatic Painting?

[Mattlt]

My kid decided to scratch a couple of lockers at school last week. (Separate issue...)

The school got a "bid" from a not so local company to fix them. Apparently some electrostatic painting method? This is a new one to me. This company has a $325 minimum charge, plus a trip charge, plus the paint. All totaled, around $500.

I understand the school has to make it painful on the kid (and the parents!) but this seems excessive.

I get the impression this painting company is taking advantage of the situation; knowing that the parent will say "just fix it" regardless of cost.

Is this estimate in line?

 

[volvo]

..
Call your local office store for recommendations for painting file cabinets electrolytically in place. Last bid I got was for a four drawer legal locking file cab, $100 total, which also was their min.


..I think one of those new two part expoxy spray cans would do as good of a job at $20, plus sandpaper, cleaners & covering supplies.

 

[Ross/Kzoo]

I understand the school has to make it painful on the kid (and the parents!) but this seems excessive.

I think that you understand the situation quite well.

 

[TheGreatNate]

I've used an electrostatic painter at work and we had them do a few cabinets while they were doing some of our machines and the cabinets equated to ~$175 each for two colors. These were the generic HON type cabinets. Not sure how large an area "a couple" lockers would be but $500 sounds high...

 

[kbs2244]

Electrostatic painting has been around a long time and is common in a school.
Schools are often afraid of the fumes associated with epoxy.

 

[signcrafter]

Electrostatic has been around and is actually pretty neat.

The price sounds high to you and me but you also have to think that the company is going to be sending 2-3 guys in from how ever far away. When They did some at one place I worked they came from a few hundred miles away. Probably have to have some sort of certification to paint inside a school also. For a crew to come out and fix this it sounds about right. With prep and paint and travel you probably have a full day. So two guys making 15 dollars an hour is 240 bucks in labor alone. Plus company overhead and supplies and it adds up to 500 really quick.

 

[Woody610nb]

Sounds like he (you) are lucky they didn't want to replace the lockers. Education is expensive.

 

[dawgee]

i had a chassis of a truck i use to race electrostatic painted cool stuff i got it done for free (the guy sponsored me) but i think he said it would be around 500 bucks if he charged me.

 

[c39er]

Back in the 70's I used to be an on site electrostatic painter. Painted mostly office furniture, elevators, safeway store coolers ect.
The crew was always two people. A prepper and the painter.
The price quoted now days would seem about right. Your kid needs to start earning some money to pay back for the damage done.

 

[ScurvyPete]

How bad are these lockers scratched up? Can we get a pic? Are the lockers functionally impaired, or is it just cosmetic?

If I were in your shoes and it was cosmetic damage only, I'd tell the school to blow me.
I'm not saying that as a sweeping rule, responsible parties should not be held liable (not pointing the finger at you, OP), but Jesus, the "victim" of this crime is a government-funded institution (at least, I'm assuming so. All bets are off if it's a private school).
As a tax payer that already pays for that ****, I'd be hard pressed to agree to pay for it.
I would not be opposed, however, to working out a deal with the school where the kid works off the debt in some way.
Either way, me and my kid would be having a long talk that would end with him not being able to sit down for a week.

 

[rburke65]

How old is your "kid". My father would have had me out shoveling snow and earning the money to pay for the repair!

 

[Mattlt]

Cosmetic damage only. Nothing profane. Lockers still operate normally.

Had a talk with the principal. We have come to the conclusion that there is no hurry to fix this damage, and there will likely be more damage to other lockers (accidental or otherwise) before school is out for the year. He's willing to see if we can work something out to get the cost down.

The best part... The "painting" of these lockers was donated a few years ago by some booster organization. (Gotta have the lockers be the school colors, you know!) Unfortunately, the board accepted the donation, not really realizing the future maintenance costs involved. Typical.

I hear ya on the discipline issue. I'm not here to get into that argument.

 

[ScurvyPete]

Cosmetic damage only. Nothing profane. Lockers still operate normally.

Had a talk with the principal. We have come to the conclusion that there is no hurry to fix this damage, and there will likely be more damage to other lockers (accidental or otherwise) before school is out for the year. He's willing to see if we can work something out to get the cost down.

The best part... The "painting" of these lockers was donated a few years ago by some booster organization. (Gotta have the lockers be the school colors, you know!) Unfortunately, the board accepted the donation, not really realizing the future maintenance costs involved. Typical.

I hear ya on the discipline issue. I'm not here to get into that argument.

I wasn't trying to start any kind of argument about discipline. Sorry if I came across that way.

 

[Sureshot]

How bad are these lockers scratched up? Can we get a pic? Are the lockers functionally impaired, or is it just cosmetic?

If I were in your shoes and it was cosmetic damage only, I'd tell the school to blow me.
I'm not saying that as a sweeping rule, responsible parties should not be held liable (not pointing the finger at you, OP), but Jesus, the "victim" of this crime is a government-funded institution (at least, I'm assuming so. All bets are off if it's a private school).
As a tax payer that already pays for that ****, I'd be hard pressed to agree to pay for it.
I would not be opposed, however, to working out a deal with the school where the kid works off the debt in some way.
Either way, me and my kid would be having a long talk that would end with him not being able to sit down for a week.

The kid needs to take personal responsibility. Your reasoning is stupid. If they don't do the repairs it is a sign to the rest that disrespecting the school's property is ok and then before you know it we will have a thread about the kids these days.

If it is the kids first "incident" use your judgement on how to resolve it and leave the lesson learned. Every kid is different.

 

[Higgins]

Yrs ago we had our office furniture painted and the cost wasn't bad. Then one of our remote offices had theirs done, and it had to be Brown that Hon used to match a few pieces they already had! Price over doubled, as the Hon Brown was considered to be a non standard color!! Management was not happy!!!

AL

 

[TAMPAGT07]

How old is your "kid". My father would have had me out shoveling snow and earning the money to pay for the repair!

Yupp, I would have been in deep poop.....I was making about $60 a week when I was 15....That would have been about 9 weeks of work....